Lot 6. BACON, Francis.

First collected edition of Bacon’s English and Latin works, including scientific, theological, historical and legal writings. A large paper example, one of only 50.

A collected edition of Bacon’s Latin works was published in 1638 in a single volume, but it took almost a decade to produce a collection also including his English works, notably including Of the Proficience and Advancement of Learning, Divine and Human (1605), Sylva Sylvarum, or A Natural History in Ten Centuries (1626), The New Atlantis (1627) and The Histories of Henry VII and VIII (1622, 1629). Uncommon.

Description

4 volumes, large 4to (38.5 x 25.8 cm), 394; 564; 586; 707pp., four engraved frontispieces [three portraits of Bacon and one ship, an allegory of new discoveries], engraved head- and tailpieces and initials. Contemporary russia, covers with gilt panels, spine with six raised bands, compartments with central gilt fleuron, author and volume number lettered direct, marbled endpaper, edges sprinkled red; joints starting but otherwise a handsome set.

Provenance: John Guitton (armorial bookplate).

Bibliography

ESTC, T88308.